A technique to suppress the oxidation of coffee or to maintain the freshness of vegetables is conventionally known in which an alternating-current voltage of 10 V or higher but 5 kV or lower is applied to an object to be treated so that an extremely weak electric current of 1 μA or higher but 1000 mA or lower flows (see Patent Documents 1 and 2). However, the mechanism remains unclear by which the oxidation of food can be suppressed or the freshness of food can be maintained by an extremely weak electric current.
Meanwhile, apoptosis is one mode of death of cells constituting a body of a multicellular organism, and is known as active cell suicide, that is, programmed cell death induced to keep individuals in better conditions. On the other hand, cell death induced by deterioration of an intracellular or extracellular environment such as poor circulation or external injury is known as necrosis. It is known that in order to suppress such apoptosis and necrosis, various drugs are administered to a living cell to induce an anti-apoptotic effect or an anti-necrotic effect. However, the fact that an anti-apoptotic effect or an anti-necrotic effect is induced by applying an electric current, which is a physical stimulus, to a living cell is not conventionally known at all.
Patent Document 1: JP-A-2004-305046
Patent Document 2: WO 2008/096631